Magnets Touted for Serving Needy Students

Magnet schools nationwide should continue and expand--as long as districts make sure the programs reach the neediest students, concludes a report issued last week by the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights.

The commission, a Washington-based bipartisan group that tracks civil rights issues, based its recommendation on a study of magnet schools in St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Nashville, Tenn.

The group found some evidence that those magnet schools improve educational opportunities for poor and minority students. But it said more research on...